Brother in Arms
by EmmaLee89
Summary: After running away for the summer after fifth year Harry and Neville are at the Leaky Cauldron trying to decide how to re-introduce themselves to the magical world but are they the only ones who have undergone a change during the summer?


**Neville Longbottom stood pensively at the window of the twin single room he and Harry had been sharing at the Leaky Cauldron, where they'd been staying under the guise of heavy glamor charms for the past ten days. Outside it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining but it wasn't too warm or too cold for that matter and the sixteen year old wanted to be out in it rather than cooped up on the train all day. "Let's fly to school," he said suddenly. **

**Harry stared at Neville, who in Ron and Hermione's absence had fast become his closest friend, his confidant and brother in arms, his brother in all but blood, completely and utterly dumbfounded. Before this summer he knew Neville wouldn't have touched a broom with a fifty foot barge pole but their defense against the dark arts trainers had unleashed a monster when they'd produced two Nimbus 3000's and started teaching them aerial combat. Harry really wouldn't be surprised if Neville turned up at quidditch trials this year and fully expected his friend to get on the team if he did. The last of the Longbottoms had managed to curse a target, no bigger than the size of a human head from twenty feet away the day before their training had ended and from a broom that was no small achievement. Neville would be an awesome chaser, Harry knew. "You're kidding right?" he said. "Think of all the trouble we'd get into." **

**Neville snickered. "This from Harry 'let's steal a flying car and take it to school' Potter? Besides, can you really tell me that you want to take the train? Think about it: six hours of being interrogated by Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna and harassed by Malfoy and his goons as opposed to six hours of relatively peaceful flying. I know what I'd choose and besides, we're going to get into trouble anyway. I missed my grandmother's and Uncle Algie's funeral and you ran away from the Order of the Fried Chicken." **

"**True," Harry admitted grudgingly. And he did miss flying. The trainers the goblins had gotten him and Neville over the summer had been hard task masters so they'd never really gotten to do more than practice cursing each other in the air and between the bloody Triwizard Tournament and the Umbitch he'd only played one game of quidditch in the past two years. Even so six hours on a broom was a little much by his standard. He didn't see why they couldn't spend the day in London and then apparate to Hogsmeade in time to take the carriages up to the castle. "You do know that we have to eat, right?" **

"**Come on granddad," Neville said, looking like an over excited toddler. "Please……." **

**Harry couldn't help but smirk at the changes in his friend. Gone was the shy, clumsy and slightly overweight young man from the Department of Mysteries disaster and in his place a tall, confident and highly trained warrior that Harry knew would be by his side when the time to end the war came. He almost hoped that there would be some kind of situation at Hogwarts where Neville could show off his new found skills and get rid of the unfair reputation that had been foisted upon him over the past five years. He knew he was different as well. He'd buried the scrawny, undernourished and scruffy product of years in the Dursley's 'care' forever and now, at six foot wasn't that much shorter than Neville and what he lacked in height he certainly made up for in muscle. He'd had his hair cut into a style that, while still messy, was much more manageable before , had invested in an entire wardrobe of brand new clothes and combined with the goblin magic that had corrected his eyesight was a totally new person. **

**He thought some more about what Neville had suggested and actually started to think it was a good idea. The greasy git Snape would probably try to get them expelled, Professor McGonagall would shout and Dumbledore would try to make them feel guilty about what they'd done but when it came down to the crunch Harry knew that it wouldn't really matter. With everything they'd done that summer he and Neville actually had no need to go back to Hogwarts for lessons – they could take their NEWTS in all twelve subjects and get twelve outstandings now – but had decided to return to school for the sake of the war effort. They could and would be of use and when he put his mind to it Harry could think of no better way to introduce the world to the new Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. "Alright," he conceded. "But you're explaining it to McGonagall." **

"**Wicked," Neville said with a disturbing gleam in his eye. Honestly Harry was beginning to regret showing his friend the book on prank warfare, the book his father and Sirius had never gotten the chance to publish during the first war. He'd found it in the Potter Vault early on in the summer and was planning on putting it to good use next time he ran into Voldemort while Neville was cooking up a plan for Bellatrix Lestrange. **

**Neither was too sure of the way to Hogwarts so knew that they were going to have to follow the Express, just as Harry and Ron had done during second year. Dobby, who had since bonded with both teenagers in return for a galleon a week and a piece of some form of clothing a month from each of them had taken their trucks on to Hogwarts, promising to hide them away until the teenagers established with Dumbledore exactly where they would be living in the castle so by quarter to eleven they'd checked out of the Leaky Cauldron and were standing on Platform 9 ¾ complete with their Nimbus 3000's. To avoid Harry and Ron's mistake of being seen by muggles while they were flying they'd disillusioned both themselves and their brooms and to avoid being seen by Mad-Eye if the grizzled old aurour was on the platform they were still under their glamour charms. Usually you couldn't put two concealment charms on top of each other but during their training Neville had stumbled upon a way to weave separate pieces of magic together and had achieved the impossible. It was just one of the many things that the teenagers were hoping to discuss with Professor Flitwick at the earliest possible convenience. **

**Harry felt a small pang as he watched Hermione, Luna and the Weasleys rush onto the platform and start looking around anxiously. They would be looking for him and Neville, he knew. Neville had made waves all across the wizarding world when he'd disappeared after his grandmother and great uncle's deaths the same night he'd gotten back from Hogwarts, not even coming out of hiding to attend their funerals and he personally had been on the run for the same amount of time ever since Uncle Vernon had beaten him half to death in retaliation for the threats Mad-Eye had issued at the end of last term. He felt bad for worrying his friends but had needed some time to heal on his own and knew that Neville felt the same way. Nevertheless he knew that wasn't going to stop them from getting the interrogation of their lives once they reached Hogwarts. **

"**Where are they?" he heard Hermione moan. "They have to be here." **

"**Of course they will be," Ginny said logically. "We would have heard by now if Voldemort had captured Harry, probably if he'd captured Neville as well and we haven't which means they have to be okay and there's no way that they wouldn't come back to school." **

"**Maybe they're already on the train," Mrs Weasley said as the whistles on the train started to blow. "You all should go and have a look for them dears. Send us an owl as soon as you find them and we'll see you all at Christmas. I believe you're coming to us, Luna, Hermione and of course Harry and Neville will as well." **

**Unable to listen to anymore Harry and Neville mounted their brooms and rose up into the air, to about thirty five feet up. It was low enough for them to be able to closely observe the Hogwarts Express but it was still horribly cold and windy which made both teenagers extremely glad that they'd anticipated this particular problem and were dressed in heavy winter traveling cloaks and thick woolen jumpers and gloves. They also activated communication charms so they could still talk to each other without having to fly too close together or yell over the wind. "This is brilliant," Neville said gleefully as the Hogwarts Express below them pulled out of the station and rounded the corner onto the route that would take them to Hogsmeade Station. "Aren't you pleased we aren't on the train?" **

"**I suppose so," Harry admitted, doing a few swoops in the air, relishing the chance to fly freely again. If he was honest with himself he was delighted by the fact he wasn't on the train. If he was he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from dwelling on the discussions that would be awaiting him at Hogwarts. With the help of the goblins he and Neville had been able to monitor some of the Order's activities and knew that they'd realized he was missing from Privet Drive and Harry was sure that this time they'd worked out exactly why he'd run away and why he'd always hated his relatives so much which meant Hermione had most likely figured it out and told Ron and the others which would give him no respite from discussions about the past. Talking with Neville and the mind healer the goblins had found for him had helped him make sense of everything the Dursleys had put him through and had made him realize that none of it had been his fault but he'd never said anything to anyone else so he really wasn't looking forward to meeting with Dumbledore who would no doubt want to analyze the abuse from every possible angle. "Catch me if you can!" **

**For the next hour Harry let Neville on a bizarre game of follow the leader whilst keeping a close eye on the scarlet steam train. Harry strongly suspected that Neville could have at least matched him if not out flown him in some of the dives that he pulled but was letting him win in an effort to pull him out of the funk that he'd fallen into after their training had ended and the time to go back to school where he'd be forced to talk about the Dursleys had drawn closer. A small part of Harry was a bit miffed that even his pseudo-brother was playing a borderline mind game with him rather than confront the issue but the bigger part of him was very grateful. **

**Just after twelve o'clock Neville, in an amazing dive managed to actually land on the roof of the Express and attach a hastily conjured marble with a tracking charm embedded in it then having safeguarded their route to Hogwarts, brooms and all the teenagers apparated back to London where they ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant that they'd discovered a few days earlier and fallen in love with. While they were eating it again occurred to Harry to try and persuade Neville that they should just either stay here in London and apparate right to Hogsmeade at five o'clock or go to Hogsmeade now and spend the day but then he remembered the marble with the tracking charm in it. Seeing as he had been the one to set it, it would only work to Neville's magic but if it remained there indefinitely it would surely be discovered eventually and the powers that be would assume it had been placed there by a deatheater and add Neville's signature to the most wanted list because, let's face it, who else but a deatheater would want to track the Hogwarts Express? **

**Harry didn't want his friend to be hunted in a similar manner to the way his recently deceased godfather had been so knew that they had to go back if only to remove the tracking charm. As soon as they'd finished they did just that, Neville side-longing Harry to a field that the train was apparently just passing. They were about to remount their brooms when Harry felt a chill in the air and witnessed at least half a dozen black robed figures closing in on the Express and was suddenly very glad that they had come back. **

**Neville mirrored his thoughts perfectly. "Shit, deatheaters!" **


End file.
